The present invention relates generally to the field of insulators for holding electric wires.
Electric fences are used to limit movement of livestock. The typical electric fence includes a plurality of upright vertically extending posts located along the length of the fence. The posts have round or circular cross-sections. An upper and lower electric wire extend horizontally the length of the fence and are mounted to the round posts by plastic electric insulators. Once such insulator is shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. 243,343. Variations of the insulators are shown in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 331,221 and 347,823.
Referring to U.S. Design Pat. No. 347,823, a nut is threadedly and movably mounted to one end of the insulator which has a vertical slot extending therethrough to receive the round post. In the event the insulator holding the bottom wire is damaged, then the top wire and associated insulator must first be removed in order to slide the bottom insulator upward passed the top end of the post. A fence extending a long distance has a number of insulators and thus to repair the bottom insulators becomes a time consuming chore. I have therefore designed a new insulator that may be removed from the round post without the necessity of removing the upper insulators. My new insulator includes a slotted open end closed by the nut with the nut being removable and the insulator moved horizontally apart from the post.
Additional insulators include the insulator shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,255 for mounting an electric wire to a chain link fence and the insulator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,036 for mounting an electric wire to a rectangular fence post.
One embodiment of the present invention is an electric insulator for mounting an electric wire to a round fence post comprising a main body with a first end to mountingly and removably receive an electric wire and an opposite second end to removably mount to a round fence post. The main body includes a round post receiving slot with a closed end and an open end. The closed end of the slot is located closer to the first end of the insulator than the open end of the slot through which the post is removable. An internally threaded nut is threadedly mounted to the insulator main body and extends across the slot between the closed end and the open end limiting removal through the open end.
One embodiment of the present invention is to provide a new and improved electric fence insulator for a round post.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a round post insulator removable from the post without the necessity of removal of additional insulators.
Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.